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Ateleia
Nightly
2007

Radium/Table of the Elements
TOE-CD-808
Compact disc

James Elliott is rapidly emerging as one of the most versatile voices in contemporary music. He collaborates with Benjamin Curtis (ex-Secret Machines); his band School of Seven Bells is making a big splash in the rock realm (David Bowie recently invited them to perform at his High Line festival in New York); and as co-founder of the acclaimed Antiopic label, he has produced works by avant heavy-hitters, including Alvin Lucier.

Now he presents Nightly, the latest work from his solo project, Ateleia. In it, Elliott artfully evokes the humid krautrock of Popol Vuh within a whirlpool of lush minimalism, nimble electronica and digital psychedelia. Nightly is a voyage up a primeval river of sound within a steaming jungle of invisible detail—where the ultimate destination is forever out of reach.

“Church-bell sonorities stretch impossibly, buzzing like distant hornets; insistent tones swarm like a Terry Riley mantra. Striking a middle ground between Fennesz and the austere minimalism of Dion Workman and Rosy Parlane, Elliott carves out a niche all his own.”
Time Out New York

“Elliott’s thrumming soundscapes approach the idea of song in a manner not unlike My Bloody Valentine’s mid-song feedback deconstructions, keeping the form as suggestion while reveling in the more sensual aspects of sound”
Grooves

“Those of you who enjoyed Kompakt’s Pop Ambient series of releases will no doubt be intrigued by the blend of sound on offer here—this music is deep, sincere, and very carefully measured.”
Boomkat 

“The careful shape of Ateleia’s formalist approach recalls Laika and Spiritualized, though Elliott clearly serves a louder, more aggressive muse.”
Magnet

“Elliott’s music is quietly, hypnotically gorgeous.”
Dusted

“Quietly breathtaking.”
The Wire

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Ateleia and Benjamin Curtis
Baghdad Batterie
Guitar Series Vol. III
2008

Table of the Elements
[Neptunium] TOE-LP-93
Phono LP, laser etching, clear vinyl
Illustration by Savage Pencil

On Baghdad Batterie, Ateleia and Benjamin Curtis fuse splendidly, as perfectly synchronized audio alchemists, and when they dip their axes in a vat of liquid electronica, the transmutation is complete: thick, glistening beats throb and undulate, without a tell-tale twang in sight. Baghdad Batterie is a fabulous piece of laptop psychedelia, and certain to delight fans of Curtis and Elliott’s previous collaboration, the exhilarating School of Seven Bells EP, Face to Face on High Places.

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Rhys Chatham
Jonathan Kane’s February
Megafaun
Paul Duncan
Collections of Colonies of Bees
Neptune
Ateleia
School of Seven Bells
Belong*
Melissa St. Pierre*

*Japan only

Radium/Table of the Elements
TOE-CD-812/TOE-LP-812
Compact disc, poster/Phono LP, white vinyl, 4/C labels, posters

For fifteen years, Table of the Elements has been the preeminent source of avant audio, championing minimal, improvised, and outsider musics of various spots and stripes. Now, as its influence radiates outward, the label presents Radium, its “rock” imprint, showcased here with Impala Eardrums, A Radium Sampler. While minimalist legend Rhys Chatham leads the way with a delightful unreleased piece from his mid-80s archives, most of the other contributors are younger folks, from a new generation of performers. It’s a diverse bunch, ranging from the raw Americana of Megafaun and Jonathan Kane, to the humid, pulsating krautrock of Ateleia and the spectral songcraft of Paul Duncan. Neptune serves up its version of home forged proto-clangor, while Collections of Colonies of Bees and School of Seven Bells pour forth in glistening, shimmering waves. Together, these eight tracks — all previously unreleased on CD — have one thing in common: a resolute will to march headlong into the untamed brambles and briar patches of 21st-century sound.

“Table of the Elements was established in 1993, and since then has released some of the most gorgeous looking and most aurally intriguing releases to grace the music scene. Providing a home to such artists as the hugely respected avant-garde violinist Tony Conrad, harpist Zeena Parkins, Krautrock kings Faust, Sonic Youth mainman Thurston Moore, guitar god Loren Connors, Japanese noise merchant Keiji Haino, British weird-folk lynchpin Richard Youngs and the late Derek Bailey among many, many others, it is pretty easy to see the kind of influence they have had. Fifteen years on and the label shows no signs of letting up. Without Table of the Elements the world would be a far duller place.”
Boomkat

“This philosophy of risk works because everyone associated with the label feels like they’re doing important work, releasing important records, and they’re willing to go for broke to make it happen.”
Pitchfork

“Table of the Elements are fearless purveyors of the wildest stuff around.”
New York Times

“A national treasure.”
Pitchfork

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Ateleia
Formal Sleep
2007

Xeric
XER-CD-110
Compact disc

Ateleia is Brooklyn resident James Elliott. His music combines crystalline pulse with submerged aquatic drones and subtle ghost melodies. It's not so much oceanic as tidal pool—the churn of teaming impulse, captured in miniature and crawling with activity. Evoking the grand echo of My Bloody Valentine and the long-standing tradition of psychedelic minimalism, but informed by contemporary electronic music, Formal Sleep is truly immersive. Featuring contributions by David Grubbs (Gastr del Sol), David Daniell (Rhys Chatham, Jonathan Kane), Jon Philpot (Bear in Heaven) and Sadek Bazaraa (Bear in Heaven).

"[Ateleia's] music becomes a relentless emotional disturbance, liable to create a complexity made of pleasure and unsteadiness..."
Touching Extremes

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OWN THE ARCHIVE

(Posted by Within Things, May 18, 2023)

From 1993, US recording label Table of the Elements has staked its claim on a massive enterprise. It intends nothing less than to rewrite the history of American music in the second half of the 20th century. The label’s 150-plus releases are a vital contemporary chronicle, a survey of meaningful eruptions across a broad horizon of improvised, experimental, minimal and outsider sounds.

The label’s carefully cultivated archive now contains over 15,000 CDs and LPs, an impossible quantity to logistically or financially maintain. Rather than “recycle” the majority of these modern sound and design artifacts, Table of the Elements is making them available to the public via Within Things.

From rich bundles of obscure recordings, exclusive printed material, and limited quantity “holy grails,” Within Things is excited to help connect this important archive to the public. We’re very honored to collaborate with a label that helped define a path and inspire what we do, long before our store even existed.

Click the image above to be taken directly to the Table of the Elements section on our site, and stay posted for the announcement of limited offerings via our newsletter.

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"The supremacy of Table of the Elements as an unwavering outpost of ultra-experimental strains can be attributed to its concomitant adherence to valiance. Most of the Table of the Elements catalog has no broad commercial appeal, and many of its projects are risky ventures, even with respect to the experimental marketplace. Yet, this philosophy of risk works because everybody associated with the label feels like they're doing important work releasing important records, and they're willing to go for broke to make it happen.”

—Pitchfork

"The music made and cultivated by such artists as Tony Conrad, Captain Beefheart, John Fahey, Cecil Taylor, Rhys Chatham, Charlie Feathers, Dock Boggs, Jim O’Rourke, Faust, Derek Bailey, Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Keiji Haino, Arnold Dreyblatt, Charley Patton, Harry Smith, and scores more, is at once among the most radical and deeply rooted of the 20th century, transcending time and place through the agency of the vibrating string, the resonance of the drone, the terrifying beauty of electric amplification, the hypnotic power of repetition, and the revelatory genius of cranky individualism. 

"How does someone begin to represent that in a visual manner? The trick involves some old-fashioned alchemy. Everyday commodity has to be constructed as both miniature museum and theater. No longer a mere object, it now becomes a site in which one can endlessly indulge a sense of wonder, love and, yes, obsession. It’s not often that someone can cast an influence on a broader design aesthetic — think Blue Note in the 1960s, with its hip Reid Miles album covers — but as this sizable body of work took shape, that’s exactly what happened.”

—Steve Dollar

“The hallmarks of this New Archivism [are] beautiful and innovative packaging, elaborate and idiosyncratic liner notes, rare and obscure recordings ... Working with graphic designers such as the Grammy-winning Susan Archie, [the label] produced a collection that combines varied textures, lavish finishes, and period details with art from the era of the original source recordings. Their treatment of Robert Longo’s late 1970s photographs for Rhys Chatham’s releases could, for instance, measure up to what’s on view at most contemporary art centers. In addition to its archival endeavor, TotE also releases the new work of its avant-garde heroes and their devotees. TotE’s active support of the work of sonic pioneers ensures that theirs are living traditions – not ossified museum objects.”

—Art Papers

Tony Conrad: Completely In the Present
A Film by Tyler Hubby

"Hubby's film captures Conrad in all his facets ... broadly as a man determined to make 'abstract art funny, happy, energetic, joyful.' Conrad lived long enough to see his early recordings, barely or never released, get the reissue and the attention they deserve. ... [Completely In the Present] is a sharp, sweet, eloquent documentary about the merriest, most artistically expansive minimalist on record. His work and his life asserted the importance of listening for the sounds nobody else has heard."

—Chicago Tribune

“Joyous, exhilarating, and transformative, Tyler Hubby’s documentary is essential viewing for anyone involved in the history of music and visual art.”

—Artforum

"Conrad was 100 percent badass. Without Tyler Hubby’s documentary and Table of the Elements ... one of the great stories of American music and art might have gone underappreciated.”

—Henry Rollins

All contents ©2024 Table of the Elements ®2024 Table of the Elements Archive. All Rights Reserved. Related media from the Table of the Elements Archive published courtesy the estate of Tony Conrad.

Since 1993, Table of the Elements has staked its claim on a massive enterprise. It intends nothing less than to rewrite the history of American music in the second half of the 20th century -- and beyond. The label’s 150-plus releases are a vital contemporary chronicle, a survey of meaningful eruptions across a broad horizon of improvised, experimental, minimal and outsider sounds.

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